- 8 December, 2020
How Ford Rebuilt Its AI Backbone with AllegroGraph and Semantic Graphs
For over 25 years, Ford Motor Company relied on an AI-powered system—originally built using KL-ONE—to manage vehicle assembly process planning. But as business demands and data complexity grew, Ford recognized the need to reengineer its core ontology into a modern, standards-based semantic graph.
This transformation led to the Global Study Process Allocation System (GSPAS) being reimplemented in OWL/RDF and deployed using AllegroGraph, Franz Inc.’s high-performance semantic graph database.
“The OWL ontology is also available for use through AllegroGraph and is being utilized by other applications that need the information.”
— AI Magazine
From Legacy to Linked Data
- Legacy Challenge: Ford’s original ontology, built in KL-ONE, supported global manufacturing operations but was difficult to maintain and couldn’t easily interface with other applications.
- Strategic Rebuild: Ford partnered with IIT Madras to convert the ontology into OWL/RDF using semantic web standards.
- Semantic Advantage: The new OWL ontology, deployed on AllegroGraph, enabled scalable reasoning, reuse across domains, and seamless integration with other knowledge sources and tools.
Why AllegroGraph Was Critical
- SPARQL Querying: AllegroGraph enabled flexible, standards-based querying across Ford’s manufacturing knowledge base.
- Reasoning at Scale: Built-in inference capabilities supported the complex classification needs of GSPAS.
- Interoperability: OWL ontologies hosted in AllegroGraph could now power multiple applications across Ford’s product development, manufacturing, and supply chain systems.
- Faster Onboarding: Scripts now load knowledge (e.g., part hierarchies) directly from external databases into the semantic graph.
The Result: A Maintainable, Extensible Graph-Driven AI System
The move to AllegroGraph and OWL unlocked major benefits for Ford:
- Easier ontology maintenance with tools like TopBraid Composer
- Greater extensibility for future applications
- Better performance with modern DL profiles (OWL 2 EL, ℇℒ++)
- A standardized, enterprise-wide semantic infrastructure
“The semantic web infrastructure gives us the capability to link to other ontologies and take advantage of the linked open data world.”
Conclusion
Ford’s adoption of AllegroGraph for its semantic AI applications is a landmark example of how enterprise knowledge graphs can modernize legacy systems, power reasoning at scale, and enable future-proof AI development.
Interested in building a future-proof ontology or migrating your legacy knowledge base into a graph-powered AI system? Let’s talk about how AllegroGraph can help.
